Because of their wide range of physical and chemical properties, chalcogen-containing functional groups such as thiols are desirable chemical moieties which can provide additional functionalities to carbonaceous materials and polymer materials for diverse industrial applications including composite productions, sensor fabrications and drug delivery. Carbonaceous materials and polymer materials often exhibit oxygen-containing functional groups. Functionalization of those materials by chalcogen-containing groups is typically carried out by crosslinking the oxygen-containing functional groups with chalcogen-containing molecules.